ABSTRACT

Perth, population one million, has more broadcast TV stations than the United Kingdom, population fifty-five million. At the end of 1988, roughly 70 per cent of the local audience was watching Channels 7 and 9, while Channel 10 had a 15 per cent share, as did the ABC and SBS combined. But the few hundred thousand people who watch television in Perth are not watching Perth television. Given the figures this is hardly surprising; the only shock is that anyone should expect otherwise. Television as a historical fact is one of the most centralized industries in the world, and even Australia, population seventeen million, is barely large enough to raise a blip on the international market screen. The two largest centres of production in the USA, and therefore the world, are Los Angeles and New York, both of which are in states whose population is

bigger than that of the whole of Australia. Precious little American TV comes from Texas, Illinois (Chicago), Pennsylvania or Ohio, despite the fact that each of these states has a population approaching that of Australia.